Texas-based Team GDT has signed Ryan Tveter to a multi-year development program in which Tveter will compete in the 2012 Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear.

Tveter, a 17 year-old from Oyster Bay, N.Y., made his professional open-wheel racing debut in 2011. He finished 10th in a field of 44 cars in the Quebec-based Formula Tour 1600 support race at the Montreal Grand Prix. He followed that up with an 11th-place finish on the famed, and highly technical, Trois-Rivières street circuit at the GP3R in a field of 30 cars.  Later that same year, making a big step up into the USF2000 National Championship powered by Mazda, he finished eighth in a field of 19 cars at the inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix.

“Competition in the Star Mazda Series is fierce and I’m looking forward to a challenging rookie year," Tveter said. "Team GDT takes a very comprehensive approach to driver development. In exchange for commitment and hard work you get amazing resources, team facilities and a very professional staff. I’m really excited to be working with Paul, Chuck, Eric and the rest of the team. Having Remi in my camp as my lead engineer and program manager is also a huge boost. We work so well together and we’re both very happy to become part of the GDT family.

"Racing really is an extension of physics and math. With Team GDT and Remi supporting me, I'm confident of meeting both my own expectations and those of the sponsors who are investing in me." 

Tveter is a fourth-year student at Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Wallingford, Ct., who plans on studying mechanical engineering at Lehigh University after graduation. 

"Ryan is a prime example of a new breed of young driver that has a unique combination of speed, intelligence and wide-ranging experience that gives him both social and business sophistication," Team GDT owner/driver J.W. Roberts said.  "While he's already accomplished a lot in life, including things that bring value to the team both on and off the track, it's still very early in his racing career and the team we're building is going to have all the tools in-house – including extremely experienced engineers for each driver -- to teach him what he needs to know and get him where he wants to go."  

Joining the championship-winning GDT squad to provide trackside engineering and career development for Tveter will be noted Canadian engineer Remi Lanteigne. 

Lanteigne, 39, from Quebec, has a wide-ranging resume in North American open-wheel racing with multiple championships and many race wins in Indy Lights, Atlantic, Formula BMW, and Star Mazda.  Over the past 15 years, the list of race winning drivers who have worked with Lanteigne includes Mikael Grenier, Richard Kent, Daniel Morad and American F1 hopeful Alexander Rossi.

Tveter and Lanteigne join the previously announced pairing of rising Colombian racer Andrés Méndez and Eric Purcell, an MIT-trained engineer with more than 30 years of experience, who engineered John Edward's Star Mazda Championship-winning car in 2009.

"I'm very pleased to be working with Ryan and Team GDT at this point in their evolution because I feel that I can really make a big and positive difference," Lanteigne said.  "In addition to helping get the team up to the next level both competitively and commercially, I'll be working on every aspect of Ryan's career, from how his car is set up to his sponsorship and PR programs.  This is a big challenge for everyone on the team and we're all very excited about 2012 and the future."